The present study employed the latest high-resolution regional climate model (RegCM4), driven by MPI-ESM-MR boundary conditions from the CORDEX-CORE South Asia framework to investigate the possible ...projected changes in the mean and intra-seasonal variability of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) precipitation and their associated dynamics during near future (NF; 2041–2060) and far future (FF; 2080–2099) with respect to the historical period (1995–2014) under RCP8.5 scenario. Extensive evaluation analysis indicates that the RegCM4 is fairly able to simulate the spatial–temporal distribution of the observed mean and extreme precipitation, low-level jet, and intra-seasonal variability i.e. active and break composite patterns of the precipitation anomalies over India during the historical period. A substantial decline in the projected precipitation during ISM is estimated over central and northwest India in NF (about 10–30%) as well as in FF (upto 50%), which may be attributed to the weakening and northward shift of low-level winds. The occurrences as well as the intensity of the extreme precipitation events are expected to increase over India in the future. The precipitation during the projected active spells will escalate over the monsoon core region. This is supported by the decrease in sea level pressure over land, which favors the winds to transport more moisture from the adjoining seas for the formation of convective clouds, which is partly indicated through the decline in net surface longwave radiation. On the other hand, the precipitation intensity during the projected break spells is expected to further decrease in the future.
Diabetic wounds are characterized by delayed wound healing due to persistent inflammation and excessive production of reactive oxygen species. Vitamin D, which is well acknowledged to enhance ...intestinal calcium absorption and increase in plasma calcium level, has recently been shown to display beneficial effects in various vascular diseases by promoting angiogenesis and inhibiting inflammatory responses. However, the role of Vitamin D in diabetic wound healing is still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of Vitamin D in cutaneous wound healing in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. Four weeks after injection of STZ, a full thickness excisional wound was created with a 6-mm diameter sterile biopsy punch on the dorsum of the mice. Vitamin D was given consecutively for 14 days by intraperitoneal injection. Vitamin D supplementation significantly accelerated wound healing in diabetic mice and improved the healing quality as assessed by measuring the wound closure rate and histomorphometric analyses. By monitoring the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (
), interleukin (IL) 6 (
),
) in the wounds, reduced inflammatory response was found in VD treatment group. Furthermore, nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway was found to be involved in the process of diabetic wound healing by assessing the relative proteins in diabetic wounds. Vitamin D supplementation obviously suppressed NF-κB pathway activation. These results demonstrated that Vitamin D improves impaired wound healing in STZ-induced diabetic mice through suppressing NF-κB-mediated inflammatory gene expression.
A large uncertainty exists today in quantifying the absorbing aerosol snow darkening effect (SnoDE) and its relative role compared to the direct radiative effect (DRE), especially at the regional ...scale. Using a regional climate model over an enlarged South Asia Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) domain, here we isolate these effects and examine their impacts on the dynamics of the Indian pre-monsoon and summer monsoon (ISM) circulation. Our results clearly indicate that the regional dynamics associated with the pre-monsoon and ISM are highly sensitive to both aerosol SnoDE and DRE, with the SnoDE dominating during the pre-monsoon, and the DRE during the ISM. During the pre-monsoon, the deposition of aerosols on the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau (HTP) reduces the surface albedo, leading to an increase in absorption of solar radiation and accelerated snow melting. The associated increase in surface and tropospheric temperature draws dry air from central Asia towards northern India and along the Himalayan foothills, creating a low-level anti-cyclonic anomaly over eastern India and the Bay of Bengal. This limits the northward propagation of southwest winds and leads to a decrease in precipitation over the central and eastern parts of India during the pre-monsoon and across northern India in the following ISM. Conversely, an increase in precipitation during the ISM is due to the strengthening of southwest winds caused by large-scale convergence over the Arabian Peninsula. The shift of winds from central Asia towards northern India in the SnoDE and towards the Arabian Peninsula in DRE leads to contrasting effects and can possibly modulate the monsoon onset dates. The SnoDE, with a prevailing contribution from dust, leads to an increase in precipitation over the HTP, which is amplified during the ISM when DRE is also considered. Our study provides evidence that both these aerosol effects have substantial impacts on the pre-monsoon and ISM dynamics and hence need to be considered in climate model simulations over the region.
The CORDEX-CORE initiative was developed with the aim of producing homogeneous regional climate model (RCM) projections over domains world wide. In its first phase, two RCMs were run at 0.22° ...resolution downscaling 3 global climate models (GCMs) from the CMIP5 program for 9 CORDEX domains and two climate scenarios, the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5. The CORDEX-CORE simulations along with the CMIP5 GCM ensemble and the most recently produced CMIP6 GCM ensemble are analyzed, with focus on several temperature, heat, wet and dry hazard indicators for present day and mid-century and far future time slices. The CORDEX-CORE ensemble shows a better performance than the driving GCMs for several hazard indices due to its higher spatial resolution. For the far future time slice the 3 ensembles project an increase in all temperature and heat indices analyzed under the RCP8.5 scenario. The largest increases are always shown by the CMIP6 ensemble, except for Tx > 35 °C, for which the CORDEX-CORE projects higher warming. Extreme wet and flood prone maxima are projected to increase by the RCM ensemble over the la Plata basin in South America, the Congo basin in Africa, east North America, north east Europe, India and Indochina, regions where a better performance is obtained, whereas the GCM ensembles show small or negligible signals. Compound hazard hotspots based on heat, drought and wet indicators are detected in each continent worldwide in region like Central America, the Amazon, the Mediterranean, South Africa and Australia, where a linear relation is shown between the heatwave and drought change signal, and region like Arabian peninsula, the central and south east Africa region (SEAF), the north west America (NWN), south east Asia, India, China and central and northern European regions (WCE, NEU) where the same linear relation is found for extreme precipitation and HW increases. Although still limited, the CORDEX-CORE initiative was able to produce high resolution climate projections with almost global coverage and can provide an important resource for impact assessment and climate service activities.
The new Coordinated Output for Regional Evaluations (CORDEX-CORE) ensemble provides high-resolution, consistent regional climate change projections for the major inhabited areas of the world. It ...serves as a solid scientific basis for further research related to vulnerability, impact, adaptation and climate services in addition to existing CORDEX simulations. The aim of this study is to investigate and document the climate change information provided by the CORDEX-CORE simulation ensemble, as a part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) CORDEX community. An overview of the annual and monthly mean climate change information in selected regions in different CORDEX domains is presented for temperature and precipitation, providing the foundation for detailed follow-up studies and applications. Initially, two regional climate models (RCMs), REMO and RegCM were used to downscale global climate model output. The driving simulations by AR5 global climate models (AR5-GCMs) were selected to cover the spread of high, medium, and low equilibrium climate sensitivity at a global scale. The CORDEX-CORE ensemble has doubled the spatial resolution compared to the previously existing CORDEX simulations in most of the regions (25
km
(0.22
∘
) versus 50
km
(0.44
∘
)) leading to a potentially improved representation of, e.g., physical processes in the RCMs. The analysis focuses on changes in the IPCC physical climate reference regions. The results show a general reasonable representation of the spread of the temperature and precipitation climate change signals of the AR5-GCMs by the CORDEX-CORE simulations in the investigated regions in all CORDEX domains by mostly covering the AR5 interquartile range of climate change signals. The simulated CORDEX-CORE monthly climate change signals mostly follow the AR5-GCMs, although for specific regions they show a different change in the course of the year compared to the AR5-GCMs, especially for RCP8.5, which needs to be investigated further in region specific process studies.
Hazardous weather related to the occurrence of severe thunderstorms including tornadoes, high-winds, and hail cause significant damage globally to life and property every year. Yet the impact on ...these storms from a warming climate remains a difficult task due to their transient nature. In this study we investigate the change in large-scale environments in which severe thunderstorms form during twenty-first century warming (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5) in a group of RegCM CORDEX-CORE simulations. Severe potential is measured in terms of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) and vertical wind-shear during the severe seasons in three regions which are known to currently be prone to severe hazards: North America, subtropical South America, and eastern India and Bangladesh. In every region, environments supportive for severe thunderstorms are projected to increase during the warm season months in both the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios during the twenty-first century. The number of days supportive for severe thunderstorms increases by several days per season over the vast majority of each region by the end of the century. Analyzing the CAPE and shear trends during the twenty-first century, we find seasonally and regionally specific changes driving the increased severe potential. Twenty-first century surface warming is clearly driving a robust increase in CAPE in all regions, however poleward displacement of vertical shear in the future leads to the displacement of severe environments over North America and South America. The results found here relate that severe impacts in the future cannot be generalized globally, and that regionally specific changes in vertical shear may drive future movement of regions prone to severe weather.
Several solid tumors (for example leiomyosarcoma, melanoma and hepatocellular carcinoma) possess areas of hypoxia, which underlies one of the primary reasons of failure of conventional anticancer ...therapies. The areas of poor vascularization are insensitive to radiotherapy and chemotherapeutic drugs. Conversely, the hypoxic regions of tumors provide an ideal environment for anaerobic bacteria. The attenuated anaerobic bacterium, Clostridium novyi-NT (C. novyi-NT), is highly sensitive to oxygen and can target the destruction of hypoxic and necrotic areas of tumors, inducing oncolysis and characteristics indicative of an immune response. Theoretically, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy combined with bacterial therapy can be used as a novel means of treating solid tumors, promoting tumor regression and inhibiting metastasis formation with a notable beneficial effect. The present review discusses the molecular mechanisms of combined bacteriolytic therapy, predominantly focusing on C. novyi-NT, and summarizes the findings of previous studies on experimental animal models, including its efficacy and safety via different drug delivery routes. This strategy has great potential to overcome the limitations of conventional cancer therapy, resulting in improved treatments, and thus potentially improved outcomes for patients.
Background: Human skull consists of various bones. One of them is mandible which is quite resistant, tough and shows systemic differences in form between individuals of different sex. It resists ...putrefaction also. There are characteristic features in the mandible that help us to differentiate sex in case of unknown victims like in mass disasters or in case fragmentary remains of the skeleton are found. Analysis of mandible with regard to its features is of great assistance in the determination of sex. Materials and Methods: A total of 80 dry mandible bones were collected. Morphological and morphometric parameters were studied to determine their sex. A total of nine parameters, i.e., three non-metric and six metric parameters were observed for each mandible. Data was collected for each parameter. Results: Among 80 dry mandible bones, 55 were males and 25 were females. 81.2% males bones had a square chin whereas, 80% females had a rounded chin. Gonial flare was everted in 89% males and inverted in 68% females. Conclusion: Mandible exhibits significant sexual differences. Various morphological and morphometric parameters are essential for sex determination in case of mandible bone.
We use an unprecedented ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) projections over seven regional CORDEX domains to provide, for the first time, an RCM-based global view of monsoon changes at various ...levels of increased greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing. All regional simulations are conducted using RegCM4 at a 25 km horizontal grid spacing using lateral and lower boundary forcing from three General Circulation Models (GCMs), which are part of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5). Each simulation covers the period from 1970 through 2100 under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5). Regional climate simulations exhibit high fidelity in capturing key characteristics of precipitation and atmospheric dynamics across monsoon regions in the historical period. In the future period, regional monsoons exhibit a spatially robust delay in the monsoon onset, an increase in seasonality, and a reduction in the rainy season length at higher levels of radiative forcing. All regions with substantial delays in the monsoon onset exhibit a decrease in pre-monsoon precipitation, indicating a strong connection between pre-monsoon drying and a shift in the monsoon onset. The weakening of latent heat driven atmospheric warming during the pre-monsoon period delays the overturning of atmospheric subsidence in the monsoon regions, which defers their transitioning into deep convective states. Monsoon changes under the RCP2.6 scenario are mostly within the baseline variability.
The added value of using regional climate models (RCMs) to downscale data from general circulation models (GCMs) has often been questioned and researched. Although several studies have used different ...methods to identify (and in some cases quantify) the added value, there is still a need to find a general metric that quantifies the added value of any variable. This paper builds on past studies to propose a new metric of added value in the simulation of present-day climate which measures the difference in the probability density functions (PDFs) at each grid-cell between a model and an observation source, and then compares the results of the RCM and GCM in order to spatially compute the added value index. The same method is also adapted to quantify the climate change downscaling signal in a way that is consistent with the present-day metric. These new metrics are tested on the daily precipitation output from the EURO-CORDEX and CORDEX-CORE projection ensembles and reveal an overall positive added value of RCMs, especially at the tail-end of the distribution. Higher added value is obtained in areas of complex topography and coast-lines, as well as in tropical regions. Areas with large added value in present-day climate are consistent with areas of significant climate change downscaling signal in the RCP 8.5 far future simulations, and when the analysis is repeated at a low-resolution. The use of different resolution observations shows that the added value tends to decrease when models are compared to low-resolution observation datasets.
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